New numbers from metrics firm ComScore show that in May, the battle of the social-networking sites may have gained a new front-runner: Facebook appears to have surpassed longtime rival MySpace in worldwide unique visitors for the first time. ComScore representatives said that this began in April when Facebook passed MySpace by a hair, and widened in May.

Facebook, according to ComScore, pulled in 123.9 million unique visitors in the month of May, beating MySpace's 114.6, and 50.6 billion page views compared to MySpace's 45.4 billion. It's been a slow but steady upward climb for Facebook, which was founded by then-Harvard undergraduate Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. The site was restricted to members with e-mail addresses from a handful of elite universities before gradually expanding to the general public and becoming a genuine Silicon Valley sensation when it kick-started the developer platform craze last year.

It was a very different story for MySpace, which was founded in 2003 and achieved mass-market success in a relatively short time by gearing itself toward independent bands and their fans.

MySpace, owned by News Corp. since 2005, nevertheless remains far ahead of Facebook in the U.S., where both companies are based. The same ComScore numbers found that MySpace has 73.7 million unique visitors in the U.S. versus Facebook's 35.6 million, and that neither site grew much in the past month. Other number-crunching firms show similar results: a Compete.com graph of the two, for example, shows MySpace's U.S. traffic shrinking a bit while Facebook's is growing steadily, but not astronomically.

This appears to confirm the common wisdom that Facebook's present growth is largely overseas. And that, of course, assumes that the numbers are accurate--online metrics firms, ComScore included, have been subject to plenty of scrutiny on behalf of Web companies and ad firms. Additionally, some of MySpace's overseas traffic does not come from the MySpace.com domain; its Chinese-language site, for example, is MySpace.cn. (ComScore representatives said later that its assessment of MySpace's traffic encompassed all the site's domains.)

In January, Facebook unveiled plans to provide translated versions of the site, something that MySpace has done since 2006 after first launching separate versions of the site for other English-speaking countries like the U.K. and Australia. There are now 29 localized versions of MySpace, and the company has office space in 20 different countries. MySpace representatives have explained in the past that their aim is to build communities centered on regional culture, not to simply expand the same networking tool worldwide.

But the Facebook strategy appears to be working, too. Numbers released by ComScore earlier this week about Facebook's growth in France suggest that the translated sites are having some positive effects in building international audiences. On Thursday, Chinese and Russian versions of the site debuted, bringing the translation offering to around 20 languages.

Overseas challenges
Still, even a fast-growing site like Facebook faces issues abroad. Ad dollars--typically stronger in the U.S. than overseas--still aren't rolling in on social networks the way many expected them to, and last month Facebook took out a $100 million loan to keep pace with growth. MySpace, meanwhile, just rolled out a site redesign that aims to make it more appealing to both users and advertisers.

Then there's the fact that while MySpace might be Facebook's chief rival in the U.S., there are plenty of other social networks with big followings in different pockets of the globe that pose local competition. Orkut, run by Google, has a lock on Brazil and also eats up a big portion of the market in India. Hi5 is big in Latin America. Friendster, long past popularity in the U.S., has nevertheless gained a sizeable following in several Asian countries.

And Facebook continues to work on image issues. The independently run company, its valuation pegged at a jaw-dropping $15 billion after an investment from Microsoft, has also been boosting its executive team to lift its reputation from Palo Alto start-up to legitimate international corporation. This spring, the company courted Elliot Schrage, vice president of global communications and public affairs at Google, to join its roster in a similar capacity as a policy-focused PR czar.

About the author

Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos.
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